A lot of companies all over the world use the Internet as a major base for advertisement of their products. There are various ways to market one‟s product on the Internet. Some of them include pay per click (PPC) ads, pop up ads, banners and such methods. Most of these methods have a heavy initial investment. And the end result of most of these forms of online advertising is that the cost of maintaining it is heavier than the benefit derived from it. Therefore, many companies are now using CPA advertising instead of the traditional forms of online marketing to promote their products online. CPA advertising basically involves generating an action from a potential customer which will then be caught by the company and exploited further for higher profits.

CPA affiliates are paid commission based on the number of such actions they are able to generate. Most individuals don‟t follow through the conditions of pay per click ads once they read through the advertisement. Sometimes, a lot of people click on these ads by mistake and leave the page immediately once they realize that they don‟t want to know anything about the product or the company. However, the company that has put up this advertisement has to pay for every click that takes place regardless of any benefit that they derive from it or not.

CPA stands for Cost per Action, or Cost per Acquisition. The second phrase makes better sense in this type of marketing as companies only pay the affiliates if the latter are able to generate any form of action from potential customers such as signing up for newsletters for the product of the company from the website, providing crucial personal information such as social security numbers or email address or even downloading information from the product website. In this way, the company benefits from deriving information regarding customers, and the affiliates are paid accordingly in commission, depending on the importance of such information. CPA networks work as mediators between companies that seek CPA marketing and affiliates that are interested in marketing others‟ products and getting paid per action that they are able to generate.

Most of these networks have basic terms and conditions that need to be fulfilled before an affiliate can enroll with them. This ensures companies who come to these networks in search for good affiliates that the job is done efficiently. Companies are advised to register themselves with as many CPA networks as possible. This increases the chances of lead generation for the products as more affiliates are working towards generation action from potential customers for your company. However, choosing the appropriate network is a difficult task. There are too many CPA networks with numerous affiliates working for them. Therefore, it is best to choose the networks which have a substantial screening system for its marketers.

Networks which can be registered with without any specific criteria are obviously less efficient in their work than those which demand some terms and conditions to be eligible for application. If your business is new, then joining a good CPA network can be the sole issue standing in the middle of profits and yourself. Depending on the product and the form of advertisement that you are seeking for it, CPA networks have affiliate managers (AM) who delegate the marketing jobs to appropriate affiliates who use the most efficient methods of advertisement in order to generate the best leads for your company.